Jordan recorded earnings of 544 million dinars ($765 million) from exports to Arab Markets in 2001. The Kingdom’s main trading partners over the last decade were Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, reported the official Petra News Agency.

Some 74 percent of Jordan’s total exports headed for Arab markets over the past 10 years, with imports from those markets representing 84 percent of the total. Jordan's earnings from Arab markets were their highest in 1997 at Dh 561 million, ($790 million) compared to Dh 222 million ($312 million) in 1992.

In October 2001, Jordan and Syria signed a free trade agreement (FTA) to boost annual two-way trade by over $100 million over the next several years. The FTA will effectively replace the 1975 Jordan-Syrian trade convention, which was branded as incompatible with new trade laws and requirements by the World Trade Organization, which Jordan joined in 2000.

The overall volume of exchanges between the two neighbors for the first quarter of 2001 reached $46.2 million. Jordanian officials stated that the free trade agreement is expected to raise the level of exchanges to over $100 million in the coming years. — (menareport.com)